Letter by Ilaro the monk

The letter by Ilaro the monk, extant in Boccaccio’s hand in Codex Laur. XXIX 7, was written by an otherwise unidentified monk at the monastery of Santa Croce del Corvo in Lunigiana and sent to Uguccione della Faggiuola along with a copy of Inferno. The letter recounts that Dante, while on a journey ad partes ultamontane, stayed at the monastery and was recognized by the monk, who showed great admiration for Dante. The poet gave Ilaro a copy of Inferno, and upon Ilaro’s surprise at the choice of the vernacular in a work with such demanding content, Dante revealed that he had in fact begun writing his poem in Latin hexameters, quoting the incipit (Ultima regna canam, fluido contermina mundo, / spiritibus que lata patent, que premia solvunt / pro meritis cuicunque suis), but that he had then opted for the vernacular, given the low esteem in which the great Latin poets were held. Dante asked him to send the texts of Inferno to Uguccione, after adding some glosses. Ilaro also informs Uguccione that if he wishes to read the other two cantiche of Dante’s poem, he should contact Moroello Malaspina and Frederick of Aragon respectively.

Although several unlikely elements (especially the news of a dedication to Frederick of Aragon, whom Dante had always disliked intensely) have lead many to consider the letter a forgery by Boccaccio, Giorgio Padoan argues strongly in favour of the letter’s authenticity and firmly refuting the hypothesis of a forgery by Boccaccio, considering also that Boccaccio uses the letter as a historical source for his biography of Dante. Nonetheless, the question is still open: noting sources unknown to Dante underlying the Latin hexameters quoted above, Bellomo[1] concludes that the letter is a forgery, produced in circles close to Giovanni del Virgilio.

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[1] S. Bellomo, Il sorriso di Ilaro e la prima redazione in latino della ‘Commedia’, in «Studi sul Boccaccio», XXXII 2004 , pp. 201-235.